The present description relates, in general, to vehicle doors and their door lock assemblies and, more particularly, to an apparatus for preventing actuation of a door lock assembly during a side impact collision.
Vehicle doors include an outside mounted pivotal handle, which can be moved in a direction to open a vehicle door. A cable or link couples the handle to a door lock assembly so that movement of the handle in an opening direction causes the cable or link to actuate the door lock assembly to unlatch the door lock assembly and enable the vehicle door to be opened.
Governmental safety standards have requirements for door lock assembly performance upon forces applied to the vehicle door, such as during a side impact collision. While various mechanisms have been employed to prevent accidental actuation and unlatching of the door lock assembly causing opening of the vehicle door during a side impact collision, such mechanisms cannot be employed in all vehicle door configurations due to size constraints.